The Psychology of Ageing: An Introduction

The Psychology of Ageing: An Introduction

The Psychology of Ageing: An Introduction

Synopsis

This well-established and accessible text has been completely revised in an expanded fourth edition. Each chapter has been updated to reflect current thinking and up to date references have been added. The chapter about personality and lifestyle has been significantly extended. This new edition is essential reading for all those working with older people, as well as a key text for students.

Excerpt

Since the publication of the third edition in 2000, there has been an explosion of research papers in many areas of the psychology of ageing, often from longitudinal studies which, after the inevitable years of waiting, are now bearing fruit. Accordingly, nearly all areas of the book have a plethora of new references. Otherwise the status quo is largely maintained and I have generally resisted the temptation to tinker with the structure of the book after the relatively large (and, modesty aside, well-received) changes introduced in the previous edition. Also as before, I have attempted to give a judicious range of references suitable for readers from different backgrounds (though with some of the more recent research only primary sources such as journals have been included because overviews are not yet available). However, for the first time I have included references to websites where I feel they are appropriate. I have an innate mistrust of unverifiable sources (and that is what most websites are), but it makes pragmatic sense to recommend sites taken as authoritative by many researchers, such as official government statistics websites and the like.